Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. We would say a lot more as like Leo Tolstoy (the author of "War and Peace") we can not proclaim brevity as one of our strengths.

And, to paraphrase The Animals and their 1965 hit song: "We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do."

We were not aware until we 'researched' the song on Wikipedia that 'this place' was referring to Vietnam. Perhaps, there are others who feel this way, but the song seems to play in our minds when we are at chamber of commerce mixers that we simply can't break away from. But, I remember one person was very honest one time at one of these things (this was about 15 years ago). He simply said: "I need to go home to watch Seinfeld."

The above image, oh by the way, is of an Irish terrier.

Quote of the Day/Week- George McGovern

Hmmm...for some reason, we are seemingly popular in Iraq and Slovenia these days.

Today, we start our series on quotes of men who couldn't quite become king as we profile and quip men who lost the presidency of the United States.

On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," we quoted Bob Dole, 88, the Republican nominee who lost the presidency in 1996 to Bill Clinton.

Here, we quote George McGovern, 89, the Democratic nominee who lost the presidency to Richard Nixon in 1972. McGovern is the oldest man to have either run for or become president. He edges out Dole as well presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, who are both 86.

McGovern is also considered to be the most progressive candidate to have run for president in the modern era, though some may argue that Al Gore, known for his environmental politics, is more liberal. Ironically, McGovern represented South Dakota, a conservative state in the U.S. Senate.

This quote reflects McGovern's strong opposition to the Vietnam War:

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."

CLARIFICATION: Apparently, the Harvard men's basketball team is not on their way to the NCAAs quite yet. Apparently, the Penn Quakers can tie for first place with a win over Princeton tonight and force a one-game playoff. The Ivy League is the one remaining conference in NCAA Division-I basketball without a conference tournament.

Yesterday, Virginia Commonwealth, Loyola (Md.) and Davidson were among the teams to win their respective tourneys.